Public works department to revive long-neglected Telkom Towers in Pretoria - TimesLIVE

The public works and infrastructure department is preparing to redevelop Pretoria’s long-troubled Telkom Towers precinct through a proposed public-private partnership that could cost up to R2.2bn.

The department plans to use a rehabilitate-operate-transfer model, under which private sector partners would fund and operate the redeveloped properties for an agreed period before transferring them back to the state.

“The private sector will be operating these buildings around us and adjacent to us for a fixed period of time. They will fund these redevelopments themselves,” said minister Dean Macpherson.

According to Macpherson, after the agreed period, the buildings will be handed back to the state.

The department had already spent about R1.4bn acquiring, renovating and maintaining the complex, while a further R776m in financial losses had been attributed to the historical mismanagement of the property.

Based on current estimates, the redevelopment is expected to cost about R1.8bn to R2.2bn and will involve the refurbishment of all nine buildings in the precinct, he said.

Once completed, the department will have 106,000m² of gross leasable area that can be used to maximise state revenue either by existing clients or new ones.

“This will be an immense opportunity to bring back our client departments from costly private leases into quality state infrastructure while also giving us as public works and infrastructure the means to supply accommodation to the private sector. More important than this will be the impact this intended project has on jobs.”

Macpherson said the redevelopment of Telkom Towers will contribute to the direct creation of more than 5,300 construction jobs.

“These are jobs that support families, grow communities, fix broken metropolises and drive economic activity which South Africa so desperately needs.”

With respect to Public Works House, he said they are anticipating a cost of about R2.2bn that will refurbish 63,768m² of gross leasable area and create about 5,700 jobs in the construction sector.

“When looking at our CGO building, this results in a project cost of R560m that will refurbish 41,739m² of gross leasable area and create about 1,600 jobs in construction. The department will, as a result of the strategic steps we are taking [now] in the redevelopment project, be able to create more than 12,700 jobs in construction and unlock a total of 212,000m² of gross leasable area for us to use to generate income for the state.”

The department has finalised a memorandum of understanding with the Infrastructure Finance and Implementation Support Agency and is preparing to issue a request for information (RFI).

“Once the RFI process has been concluded, the department will proceed to take the responses we received to design the request for qualification stage, which will identify companies that are technically and financially capable of doing the work. Those qualified bidders will then be invited to respond to a request for proposals to rehabilitate, operate and, in time, transfer the facility back to the state.”

Macpherson said there is a huge appetite in the private sector to rejuvenate and operate these large precincts.

The redevelopment plans follow years of criticism over the Telkom Towers precinct, which the department said had been affected by vandalism, theft and criminal occupation while remaining largely unused.